Forwarded by Bob Fink:
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The following article has been sent to you from the
Detroit Free Press (www.freep.com):
Published June 6, 2005
http://www.freep.com/news/mich/create6e_20050606.htm
THEORY ISN'T SCIENCE, TEACHER'S GROUP SAYS
BY PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER
The national debate over how life began is landing in the
quiet southwest Michigan village of Richland, where the school
district is threatened with a lawsuit over teaching the theory
of intelligent design in science classes.
Intelligent design holds that the universe is too complicated
to have been created by accident, as the theory of evolution
implies. Consequently, there must have been some sort of
"intelligent designer" behind creation. The question is
whether intelligent design is science -- or religion?
Backers say the theory is not creationism because it doesn't
speculate about the identity of the designer.
Critics, including the National Science Teachers Association,
call it nothing more than a thinly disguised version of
creationism and a back-door attempt to get religion into
public schools.
"It's the religious right that's pushing this. This is mixing
religion and science," said Gerry Wheeler, president of the
association.
The issue worked its way into Gull Lake Community Schools, which
includes Richland, when two middle school science teachers, Julie
Olson and Dawn Wenzel, put a book on intelligent design called
"Of Pandas and People" on the district's annual textbook list.
Wenzel and Olson also added a lesson including "Of Pandas and
People" into the district's binder-thick science curriculum. The
school board subsequently approved both.
"I am fully confident that our school board never studied this page,
never had it brought to their attention and never knew what it meant
even if they did see it," Superintendent Rich Ramsey said in a
statement made through the district's attorney.
Olson said intelligent design is being embraced by a growing number
of scientists, but she wouldn't comment on whether personal or
religious beliefs contributed to their decision to teach the subject.
"I feel that's kind of irrelevant since we're discussing science. We
don't talk about the designer, we strictly teach the science aspect,"
Olson said.
They quietly taught intelligent design alongside evolution for two
years until a parent complained last fall. Then the administration
told them to stop teaching the theory while a committee, including
the two teachers, studied whether it belonged in the curriculum.
The committee voted 5-2 in May against teaching intelligent design,
with Wenzel and Olson the only dissenting votes.
In the meantime, the teachers turned to the conservative Thomas More
Law Center in Ann Arbor. The center, which is suing a Pennsylvania
school district over not allowing intelligent design to be taught,
notified Gull Lake it's likely to be sued as well.
"People were aware they've been teaching this," said Richard Thompson,
the law center's chief counsel.
"Basically what we think happened -- and we will find out -- is
that some outside pressure was put on the superintendent to prohibit
the teaching of intelligent design."
There was no outside pressure, said the district's attorney,
Lisa Swem. School officials didn't know Olson and Wenzel were
teaching intelligent design until they received the complaint.
"There was never any approval or authorization for intelligent
design," Swem said.
The debate between teaching creationism or evolution is not new.
During the last few years, however, it's been refueled by intelli-
gent design. In May, the Kansas State Board of Education held a
hearing on teaching evolution. Three states -- Ohio, New Mexico
and Minnesota -- have adopted standards that could allow intelli-
gent design to be taught in schools.
A survey by the science teachers' association this year found
almost one-third of its members feel a growing pressure from
students or parents to teach creationism or intelligent design.
"It's just not fair to present unsupported, unproven data to our
students," said association president Wheeler. "The key issue is:
Is intelligent design testable? There's no test that one can set
up to prove it, and that's the test [required] of science."
The theory is hotly debated in the scientific community, with most
mainstream scientific journals discounting it. Advocates point to
a handful of papers published in peer-reviewed journals, including
one in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, a
periodical that requires three established scientists review all
papers in order to be published.
The article caused a furor among the society's members, who went
on to endorse a statement saying there was no credible evidence
that intelligent design is legitimate science.
Meanwhile, the debate continues in the Gull Lake community.
"It wasn't until creationism was ousted from public schools that
intelligent design was brought in," said Mark Jennings, a Gull
Lake Community Schools parent and pastor of the First Presbyterian
Church in Richland. "I've always thought the school should leave
teaching about God to the church and we'll leave science to the
schools."
But another parent, Brian Showerman of Augusta, said kicking out
intelligent design limits what students can learn.
"Our kids need to have the freedom to learn all aspects of a thing,
to figure it out for themselves," he said.
* * *
IN THE BEGINNING
The three theories of how life began:
* Evolution: Charles Darwin's theory that life evolved in tiny
stages, each stage more adaptable to the current conditions than
the last through a process called natural selection.
* Creationism: Basically holds that God created all life and
includes the explanation found in the Bible, in Genesis.
* Intelligent design: Agrees with natural selection but says some
life forms, such as humans, are too complex to have been created
by accident so there must have been an intelligent designer. It
does not discuss the designer's identity.
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